Azernews.Az

By Gunay Hasanova

Families of Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, who were taken hostage by Armenian aggressors are concerned on their health.

Sahib Asgarov, a brother of Dilgam Asgarov, told Trend that their appeal to the Azerbaijani representation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to organize a meeting with their loved ones that are in Armenian captivity, or to set a video connection with them remains unfulfilled.

"For two and a half years, we’ve been communicating only through letters," he said. "So far, in addition to the letters, we have sent three parcels to my brother. One and a half years ago, Shahbaz Guliyev’s brother and I appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross for a meeting with our brothers reportedly kept in prison in Shusha. However, they still cannot resolve this issue. In addition, I appealed to the Azerbaijani representation of the International Committee of the Red cross five or six months ago with a hope to hold at least a video connection with my brother since it is not clear from his letters how his health status is. We are concerned about his health a lot. He constantly complains of pain in the head and back in his letters. The Azerbaijani Representation of the International Red Cross told that the pains are associated with age and the place where they live since there are certain limitations. However, I know that my brother was injured during the arrest. We could see that he limped during the judgment process in the court. Therefore, I want to meet him and ask his health condition from him," said Asgarov.

Earlier Dilgam Asgarov wrote in detail about his health, but he didn’t write anything about it in the last letters, according to his brother Asgarov.

Sahib Asgarov said that they have certain doubt, because the last two letters from Dilgam were written in Russian.

“In response to our question ICRC said that a representative of the committee, who is there, did not know the Azerbaijani language. However, before the letters were in the Azerbaijani,“ he added.

Moreover, Sahib Asgarov noted that lately some parts are being deleted from the letters of his brother.

“He is not allowed to write everything,” Sahib Asgarov said.

So far, they have sent to Dilgam his favorite sweets and other dry food.

"Earlier, we were sending him warm clothes. But then, the ICRC, as well as Dilgam himself told not to send warm clothes. We are not allowed to send him food. They say that supposedly the Committee provides them with the necessary products. The Committee submitted us a list of products they are provided with. The list included coffee, pineapples, bananas, but this is improbable," Sahib Asgarov said.

The two citizens of Azerbaijan were taken hostage by the Armenian armed forces in July, 2014 while visiting their native places and graves of loved ones in the occupied Azerbaijani Kalbajar region. Moreover, Armenian forces killed the third Azerbaijani citizen, Hasan Hasanov.

Later, Guliyev and Asgarov were judged illegally by the unrecognized courts of a separatist regime in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh. Following an expedited “judicial process" in December 2015, Asgarov was sentenced to life imprisonment and Guliyev to 22 years.

Azerbaijan, whose over 4,000 citizens were taken captive, hostage, or went missing as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh war, has repeatedly declared its readiness to begin negotiations with Armenia.

Azerbaijan’s State Committee on Affairs of Refugees and IDPs, the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons and other agencies have repeatedly urged international organizations, including the ICRC, to assist in the release of Guliyev and Asgarov.

But the Armenian side remained deaf, ignoring all calls and violating the international rules and norms by subjecting the hostages to various tortures.

Armenian aggression against its neighboring country resulted in the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories. The large-scale hostilities resulted in the death of over 20,000 Azerbaijanis while over 4,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis were taken captive, hostage, or went missing as a result of the war. The majority of those captured during the hostilities are children, elderly people, and women.

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Gunay Hasanova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @gunhasanova

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